Time is running out to visit Tatooine

The fictional city of Mos Espa is located within the sand dunes of Tunisia. The characters from Star Wars are walking down the marketplace with many domed buildings and sci fi structures around them.
The fictional city of Mos Espa is located within the sand dunes of Tunisia. The characters from Star Wars are walking down the marketplace with many domed buildings and sci fi structures around them.

Image via starwars.wikia.com

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, 1999 and Tunisia to be exact, George Lucas gave Star Wars fans the most detailed and strikingly beautiful location that the series had to offer. Just ask any Star Wars fan of the first city that springs to mind, they’ll undoubtedly think of Mos Espa, the hometown of one Anakin Skywalker. Fast forward well over a decade however, this real world location may soon be a thing of the past.

Located just to the west of the Tunisian city of Tozeur, lies one of the most detailed Star Wars sets ever built. Nestled amidst the dunes are around 20 buildings covering an area of around 10,000 square meters. One of the largest Star Wars sets produced, many tourists stumble upon the location thinking they’ve been transported in time.

This area was prominently featured in the first of the Star Wars prequels, Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace and has since become one of Tunisia’s key tourist attractions. Tourists can currently visit Mos Espa and get the feel as though they are on the fictional planet of Tatooine, the only thing that’s missing are the twin suns.

CNN reports however, that this iconic area may soon be lost by the very location it resides in. The sand dunes next to Mos Espa are currently moving at a rate of around 4cm per day, with the fictional city lying right in its path. Very soon, Mos Espa may be lost forever.

A domed hut is shown with sand creeping up the already decayed walls.

Image via holidaycheck.com. The sand is starting to surround the already weathered Mos Espa buildings.

This news comes at a devastating loss for Tunisia, as the area is frequently included in various holiday packages and draws many visitors, all wishing to gain an insight into this iconic fictional city.

In an interview with CNN, Tahar Karya, an expert in the sand dunes of Tunisia and George Lucas’ personal driver during filming, had this to say about how Tunisia benefited as a result of Mr Lucas:

“More than 1,500 background actors were employed. Agencies and hotels also benefited. Over a period of two-and-a-half months, (Lucas) brought activities to the region and beneficial economic activity. We hope he comes back here again.”

Perhaps George Lucas will return to Tunisia to film the latest Star Wars films? He’d better bring a spade.

The set has remained unused since 2003 after Lucas finished filming Episode 2, the final film that featured Mos Espa. At the time of writing, those interested can still visit the set, but for how much longer?

Better book those tickets sooner rather than later Star Wars fans, as Mos Espa may soon be swallowed up by the Sahara Desert itself. Perhaps a few centuries from now future civilisations may uncover the location and mistake it for a functioning city of our time and not that of a film set.

The greatest film heroes

Luke Skywalker in the swamps of Dagobah, with Yoda.

The hero. Or heroine. The one person who goes above and beyond, faces insurmountable difficulties, but still comes out on top and saves the day. Some are made, shaped by the situations they find themselves in. But some are born. This is our top 5 most awesome, coolest and most heroic in film to date.

5. Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.

Image via: http://images5.fanpop.com

Like I said, some heroes are born, and some are forged in the fires of action. Sigourney Weaver’s Weyland-Yutani frieghter officer certainly has a good rep sheet for these experiences – surviving and battling xenomorphs in Alien turns her into a completely awesome warrior. Eventually, she even turns into a superhuman half-alien clone. Her best moment must be jumping into an exo-suit cargo loader to beat the snot out of the Alien Queen.

4. Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones cracking his whip.

Image via: alphacoders.com

This one is special. During term-time, he’s a mild mannered professor of archaeology. But when school is done, watch out. He’s secretly a Nazi-stomping, whip-cracking, badass adventurer. Most iconic hero moment? Shooting the fearless swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I wish I was that effortlessly cool.

3. Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne pointing a handgun.

Image via: coen-eng.com

Once, he was David Webb. Then Operation Treadstone happened and he turned into a super-cool amnesiac rogue agent. Who can drive like a pro. And shoot. And he can literally fight anyone. In fact, in his best moment in The Bourne Ultimatum he leaps off a balcony and beats a guy down with a book. Actually using knowledge to incapacitate someone. So cool.

2. James Bond

Sean Connery as James Bond, sitting in a chair drinking an alcoholic drink.

Image via: blacklapel.com

He needs no introduction. The finest that MI6 has to offer. 50 years later he’s still the suave-est hero around, and you can always rely on him to protect Queen and Country. His coolest moment definitely has to be keeping his cool when his Crown Jewels were in trouble in the iconic laser scene of Goldfinger.

1. Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker sitting in a room.

Image via: http://thestarwarstrilogy.com/

And here we have it, the number one hero. At one time, every young boy wanted to be Luke Skywalker. The hero in a perfect tale of good vs. evil, Luke learns the ways of the Force and the lightsaber and sums up what it means to be a hero. Most deservedly, Luke Skywalker wins the top spot. Best moment? “You will take me to Jabba now”. How did he get so cool?

Got any more ideas of who should be on this list? Comment below with your top film heroes!

Secrets of the horror film – a Q&A with Peter Jukes

Man screaming being attacked by an alien

The art of the horror film is a complex one, to say the least. What is it that really gets viewers terrified?

Personally, I am a great fan of horror fiction. I just can’t get enough; from the literary genius of Stephen King to the directing prowess of John Carpenter. But as much as I love a good scary flick, I just find books of the same genre so much scarier.

At Inside Film we strive to give you the very best in behind-the-scenes knowledge on everything film. I sat down with horror aficionado and author Peter Jukes to chat about what makes fear in both of these mediums, and how the great horror novel compares to and influences the film counterpart.

Peter Jukes stood in a car park

Image via: unbound.com

Josh: Hi Peter, good to speak with you. I’m going to give you a few statements, let me know what your opinions are on them.

Peter: Sure.

Josh: Modern forms of horror adhere more to the anxieties of modern life than the more classic ‘monster horror’.

Peter: There was a time, from the mid 70s to the 90s, when modern forms of horror did address the anxieties of modern life. Whether it was a viral selfish replicator ‘thing’ in the Antarctic Ice, or zombies in the local shopping mall, or reincarnation and telepathy in a remote mountain hotel, the classic movies of the independent era spoke to our understanding of a godless universe, or the hollowness of consumerism and the unpredictability of human motivation. Now, however, I think the genres have become exploitative, nostalgic, and lack innovation. Another remake of Cabin in the Woods addresses our previous knowledge of cinema, not real life. Apart from DC and Marvel comic books, Zombies and Vampires dominate Hollywood in its infantile regression to stereotypes. But at least Zombies and Vampires have some real inner life compared with Iron Man and Superman.

Josh: Horror novels convey a greater feeling of fear by pulling readers in far more than a film can. They are more immersive, and the reader can really become more invested into the story, and therefore the horror.

Peter: There’s little doubt that the best horror is invisible, and composed in the mind’s eye. Val Lewton, master of the 40s Cat People and early Voodou movies, understood that it is what you expect, the psychology of what Freud described as the ‘uncanny’ is much more powerful than any overt graphic content. Lewton‘s movies are full of threat. The realisation of violence is always much less scary than the possibility of it. Hitchcock exploited the ‘fear of fear itself’ in movies such as Vertigo and Psycho. The violence was never seen, but implied in the montage of shots, the blood flowing down the shower sinkhole (in black and white). One of the best monsters ever created in the last fifty years, Ridley Scott‘s alien was never seen whole, only in implied fragments. The power of obscenity lies in it being off-scene. As soon as horror is filmed, exposed, and visible, it loses its power, and often becomes laughable.

Josh: Thanks for that.

Peter: No problem.

Josh: Just a few more questions. In the news media today, topics that have far more of a shock factor than 50 years ago. It is my own opinion that horror films therefore have to increase their own shock factors and fear in order to become scarier than what people see everyday. Does this apply to horror novels?

Peter: The media has certainly become more graphic in its depiction of war, famine and catastrophe. Dead bodies are shown more often, and there’s an imperative to show the reality of violence as a moral corrective to complacency. But by any standards this increasingly graphic depiction of violence in the media has been accompanied by a rapid fall in violence in our everyday lives, from street robberies to armed conflict abroad. We live, as Stephen Pinker has shown in his book The Better Angels of our Nature, in a time of unprecedented peace and personal safety. As a result, compared to the gratuitous violence of the 70s and 80s, I notice that most movies now explore the psychological and personal consequences of violence, much more than the physical effects. The TV Batman of my youth was always punching and killing people. The Batman Begins trilogy by Christopher Nolan explored personal trauma, and our attitudes to combating violence. Horror novels deal with the same debate. They explore the psychology of victimhood or sadism – not just the physical impact of torture or abuse. In short, violence has become a metaphor for a loss of trust, or (sometimes) the sexual complicity in subordination and domination. In essence, it’s moved on to a complex debate about the parameters of personal desire and responsibility.

Josh: With the shock and gore tactics of a lot of modern ‘torture porn’ films that are so popular now, there are an abundance of horror experiences that are quicker, more convenient and some would say easier to access and digest. As a huge reader and fan of horror novels, I would say there is nothing better than getting into a good book. What is your opinion on this?

Peter: As I’ve written in the New Statesman on a Short History of Violence (some 20 years ago) the ability to conjure up technical effects of shock and horror is a classic virtuouso performance from every artist from Sophocles and Virgil to Caravaggio and Shakespeare. But what we are in danger of losing in our technical appreciations of the spectacle of fear is the inner dimension of tragedy. A horror story causes us to disengage from the hero or heroine at the moment of personal exposure. Tragedy does the reverse. Rather than shaking us out of the fiction with shock and horror, tragedy causes us to both be inside and outside the fiction with the cathartic emotions of pity and terror: pity at the hero’s predicament and lack and self insight: terror at the impending doom we can see will ensue. Tragedy makes us enter the hero subjectively but see his or her fate objectively. Horror does the reverse: we become objective about the pathology of their flesh, and subjective about their fate.

Josh: Thank you Peter, that was all fantastic and really insightful.

Peter: No worries Josh, great talking with you.

So, do the great horror novels have an influence on the best scary films? Give us a comment below, or chat to us on our Twitter page.

Back to the Present

The poster image for the 1989 Back to the Future film
The poster image for the 1989 Back to the Future film

Image via www.hardzine.com

Predictions Back to the Future II got right, and wrong

According to Robert Zemeckis’ 1989 sequel Back to the Future II, Marty Mcfly should be arriving in the present in just over a year. Zemeckis has been adamant since its release that the sequel was not meant to be an accurate depiction of the future. “For me, filming the future scenes of the movie were the least enjoyable of making the whole trilogy because I don’t really like films that try and predict the future.”

However, albeit accidentally, Zemeckis’ portrayal of Hill Valley in the 21st century throws up more similarities that anyone could have predicted.

One of the most popular gimmicks in film over recent years has been the explosion of 3D technology in our cinemas and homes. It seems every Hollywood blockbuster released over the last four to five years has been accompanied with a more expensive, 3D version.  Although 3D films have existed in some form since 1915, the recent growth in popularity, driven by the unprecedented success of Avatar in 2009, was a major aspect of Zemeckis’ portrayal of the future. A 3D advertisement for “Jaws 19” in Back to the Future II, in which a virtual shark attempts to eat Michael J. Fox, is one prediction Zemeckis got right.

That is just the beginning. Have you ever heard of the iPad or the electronic tablet? Nobody had in 1989, but it didn’t stop Zemeckis including handheld technological devices that have become the driving force of global communication in the 21st century. Zemeckis even managed to preview the way we use our technology to communicate, with references to video conferencing. Today, apps such as Skype are an integral part of our society, but in 1989 it was a different story. The mobile phone was still at a very basic stage, and the webcam would not been invented until 1991, by Cambridge University students to monitor coffee levels from their desks.

Back to the Future even included: devices similar to Google Glass; digitally received television; voice control; easily accessible, digital recording equipment; and handless video games.

Zemeckis later explained that rather than trying to make a scientifically sound prediction that we were probably going to get wrong anyway, we figured, let’s just make it funny.” Not a bad effort from somebody who essentially allowed his imagination to run wild.

He didn’t get it all right though. We do have hover boards, but they cannot be used in anyway yet and we’re all still waiting for flying cars, a concept that is still lurking around the drawing board.
The 2015 version of Hill Valley still also commonly use the “Laserdisc” which has long since become obsolete. Zemeckis also missed the idea of instant messaging or email, using the fax machine as the preferred form of communication, despite video conferencing technologies also at their disposal.

But as we draw closer to 2015, there is still time for more of Zemeckis’ ideas of the future to come true, except the double tie. The double tie will never be acceptable.